TERRA NOVA To Find Second Life On Netflix? Stephen Lang Calls Cancellation ‘Myopic’

Terra Nova may have gone the way of the Dodo on FOX, but could Netflix revive the serial-soft family drama? Also, Stephen Lang hits out at FOX for the show’s cancellation.

According to reports, streaming giant Netflix and Twentieth Century FOX are in preliminary talks over bringing the short-lived series back to life. It’s too early to say whether discussions will evolve into negotiations but this will undoubtedly be seen as encouraging news for fans left heart-broken over the show’s demise.

The Netflix discussions are hardly a surprise. As soon as the show was cancelled by FOX the studio (with the help of lead Jason O’Mara) announced they would try to find a new home for the series. Whether Netflix can afford to materialize a second life for the enormously expensive Terra Nova remains to be seen, but there’s a logic to their interest. The show is highly is highly DVR’d (an intriguing prospect for a steaming service) and Netflix are already bringing back another cancelled FOX series in Arrested Development.

If a move does materialize, it would be interesting for another reason — Netflix are beginning to make waves in the serialized TV landscape, so a Netflix-based Terra Nova could well see a more serialized Terra Nova. But as stressed above, it’s unclear whether these early talks will actually yield positive results in terms of a second chance (Part II) for the Shannons and Co.

Even so, Terra Nova‘s global viewership will be more heartened today than they were earlier in the week.

In related news, Stephen Lang (AKA Commander Taylor) has lashed out at FOX for being, what he calls, “myopic” over the cancellation of Terra Nova:

“Terra Nova is analogous to the Hubble Space Telescope. Within weeks of a much publicized and ballyhooed launch in 1990, the Hubble was found to have a serious flaw. Yet even with an improperly ground mirror the Hubble delivered extraordinary images. When the flaw was corrected the Hubble delivered images of transcendent beauty and value for many years. So too Terra Nova. Even in it’s flawed first season each episode was full of marvelous moments and beautiful images. With correction, and given the chance, Terra Nova can and will deliver seasons of transcendent images and story-telling. Failing to renew Terra Nova is shortsighted, as myopic as it would have been to scrap the Hubble. Terra Nova is the Hubble Telescope of television.” – Stephen Lang

I think ‘SLang’ is reaching a wee bit with that parallel, but in fairness he at least recognizes that the show had flaws. A second season may well have helped repair the show — I’m pretty sure most cancelled rookie shows would say the same thing — but the question is whether the show would be allowed to get better in its current mold?

In the end, the “beautiful images” and SFX, were not the main problem; it was the story-telling that Lang praises; the contrived dialogue, kiddie-geared storylines, poor character development, and disregard for serialization and science-fiction. Sure, we had the last clutch of episodes that addressed some of those issues, but for many viewers the show was inherently broken from the start and didn’t do nearly enough to instill confidence along the way. Having a lot of ‘stuff’ happen is not my idea of a great finale.

That said, I still believe the premise has potential, and should the improbable happen and something comes of the Netflix talks, I’d be very interested to find out the blueprint for 2.0. Would they give us a ‘grown-up’ version of Terra Nova? Would the procedural episodes be dropped in favor of more overarching stories? Would the ‘two-world’ scenario be better utilised? And the most important question of all — would the go away spider song return? These questions and more would need to be addressed. But let’s see if anything actually happens.

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Comments

Agree with your assessment on the series Roco. The pilot was excellent, but then in the course of several episodes in, it progressively lobotomised itself to the point where I could no longer watch it — which is rare for me.

It’s incredibly frustrating to watch a series which had so many intriguing concepts just go to the dogs. Fans of the show keep telling me the finale was a big improvement – is that true?

I’ve been a fan of Stephen Lang since his ‘Crime Story’ days, and loved Jason O’Mara in the excellent ‘Life on Mars’ (one of the few series to get an ambiguous ending that actually worked).

But I really didn’t feel the show exploited their talents – especially O’Mara. All that budget on effects, but a lot less on the screenplay.

For the first time ever on pretty much anything I actually disagree, though only slightly, with Senior Rocco (who as per usual is 99.999 spot on and makes a point of including a display of his TN love via the spider song reference, which I totally forgot about):
I liked Terra Nova for what it was because it was understated, in a way, among other things. I think that everything meshed together in such a way that if you changed anything you’d have to change everything. Everything about it, despite how corny or cheesy and tv-ish, seemed comfortable, familiar and I think that is something seldom achieved anymore in film or television leaving shows usually feeling disjointed no matter how much we/our subconscious convince/s ourselves that things fit perfectly. I think Lang is right in that there were flaws but I think that he knows as well as anyone that these things might have been recognized as otherwise shortly down the road into S2 (hence the Hubble metaphor). They did a great job of easing the viewer into their world and in one season escalating it to the point they did, in preparation for S2, the way they did: by way of interesting misdirection and disguises upon the serialized elements that I thought was a brilliant approach (I get the feeling that a few seconds into S2 it would have become immediately apparent why it was necessary for them to take their time introducing the world in S1 and doing what they did to make us feel comfortable in it because everything was about to escalate exponentially and change pretty much completely). It didn’t try too hard, it wasn’t complicated, but it was still going somewhere complicated and interesting and good. & It did make you feel like a kid in the sense of it being kiddy and I liked that as well. It’s something my little cousins could have enjoyed as much as I did (and as a great alternative to the insufferable plastic cr*p they watch on the Disney channel). I felt every time I was watching it like the first time I saw Jurassic Park and the way I did playing with dinos as a kid, and that I liked. Sometimes it’s nice to feel like a kid again (in proper context)!

As is typical in most mainstream art today, too much to digest comfortably right from the start is barely enough to keep something alive anymore and I was quite happy to see AND WOULD BE HAPPIER TO SEE MORE OF art that takes its time and is proportionately rewarding (like a good 25 minute prog metal song or classical symphony; maybe with an overture (S1)? or where dissonance creates the want/need from the audience for consonance/resolution leading to a more enjoyable/pleasurable/rewarding pay off? right? eh eh?).

May the powers that be in the universe strike down hopeless mediocrity and let Terra Nova, FRINGE, Alcatraz, Eastbound & Down and the like air forever! (I would add Game of Thrones but it occurs to me that it already probably will = hooray! 1 for the good guys!)

i also felt like a kid again.. it was, as if, i was part of it…., KnoW, it sounds silly, but was the first series EVER to get my attention, not to miss one episode. anyway, thanks for all the great comments. i feel for ALL TERRA NOVA FANS, OUT THERE……